Chương 55: Chapter 55: The Result of the Gamble

Both of them were thankfully well within his 500,000 CD budget.

However, either one was easily more than 10 times the price of his current soft armour.

The flame-attribute armour was 380,000 CD, while the Protean armour, due to its effects being a gamble, only cost 330,000 CD.

The price also reassured him.

If he really disliked the effects that were born after it received Bea's spiritual power, he should be able to scrape up enough to buy the other armour after going hunting again.

Hopefully, by then the White Widow would either have been killed or returned back to its territory.

He had also thought about selling his old armour to get back some money, but he wouldn't be able to get more than 30% of what he'd paid for it, and that amount of money is no longer significant to him.

It was a decent quality armour that could be used if one of the other kids in the orphanage awakened an affinity later on.

After making the payment, Kain left the store with nervous anticipation.

First returned home and had a bath before lighting 4 candles in circle facing each direction

None of these actions had any practical purpose, but he felt like a sense of ceremony during a luck-based gamble like this would help him calm down.

It gave the illusion that he had more control than he actually did.

Laying down the armour in the middle of the candles and sitting cross-legged next to it, he called out Bea, before placing her on the armour and telling her where to direct her spiritual power.

Gradually the sigil on the armor began to glow with a dark pink hue as it was injected with Bea's spiritual.

Even without the System, just looking at the colour of Bea's spiritual power let him know that she was close to advancing to red-grade.

Slowly the armour began to glow so brightly he could no longer look directly at it.

Once he sensed that the light had dimmed, he opened his eyes.

He was expecting there to be a drastic change in appearance. However, it was still silver, but now with hints of blue when turned in the light.

Additionally, instead of the smooth appearance it previously had, it now had texture.

Covering the entire armour were small overlapping circles that resembled scales, however the size of these "scales" was far smaller than any known spiritual creature Kain had seen in person or in a textbook.

"Are these supposed to symbolize Bea's many splits?" Kain pondered.

'Looking at the armour, and knowing that it is made from a Protean, most people will probably assume that my initial contract is some kind of reptile or aquatic creature. Unfortunately, their attempts to figure out my contract will prove useless. There's nothing like Bea' Kain though smugly.

"Let's see what effects you have…" For enchanted equipment, unlike normal ones, the information on its effects will appear in the user's mind when their spiritual power is first inserted.

Kain began to do so. It clearly took longer than when using the 1-star spear, due to his spiritual power not quite being at the ideal red-grade to use 2-star equipment, however, the level of his spiritual power was close enough to still make it useable by him.

Once he officially enters the realm of a 2-star beast-tamer he should be able to fill it with his spiritual power instantly.

As soon as it was filled with his spiritual power, the information appeared in his head. He soon began to shake from excitement.

It had successfully inherited Bea's mental-attribute!

In addition to the passive effects of granting the user resistance against mental attacks while slightly increasing their mental strength, it also had an active skill.

When injected with spiritual power the user could activate an area of effect mental attack that caused disorientation and pain to all in the surroundings. The size and strength of the mental attack were dependent on the amount of spiritual power injected.

All of Kain's regrets about giving up the fire-attribute armour were now gone.

This armour now also added to his attack arsenal, and it was also an AOE attack, which were rare among individuals at his level of strength.

The passive effects of the armour may also help him with another area he had been having trouble with—feeding Bea.

Although, it needed to be tested. He was confident that if Bea infected him while he was wearing the armour, he should be able to withstand Bea for longer and hopefully the negative side effects on his mental strength also won't be as harsh.

Seeing that the 24 hour hold on using mental strength was up, he decided to put on the armour and give it a test run.

'Previously I had only been able to hold on for 5 minutes, I wonder how long I could hold on now?' He thought once the infection began and he started the timer in his hand.

By the time 5 minutes passed, he only felt a little lightheaded with no other symptoms,

It wasn't until the 9-minute mark that the edges of his vision began to darken and he directed Bea to exit his body.

"Haa….System, show me the damage?"

Immediately, his status screen opened, showing a familiar red star next to his mental strength.

However, likely because he stopped this time before the most severe symptoms began, the penalty to his mental strength would be resolved in only 12 hours—half of the previous time.

He then went to Bea's status screen.

After another feeding session, her spiritual power had increased rapidly to 953 SP. Thankfully, it doesn't look like the armour significantly inhibited Bea's ability to absorb spiritual power, focusing more on inhibiting the mental attacks her infection causes.

Additionally, since he could tolerate her longer, the amount she absorbed also increased.

Kain decided to revise his current college preparation plan.

Instead of feeding Bea every 3 days to avoid the 24 hour penalty, with the armour he could now afford to feed Bea every other day.

With the Planetarium provided by the System allowing him to absorb spiritual power more effectively, he can make up for what Bea took in the days between feedings.

With this new plan, Bea may reach red-grade spiritual power in around 2 weeks.